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Book and Movie Comparisons List
Welcome to the Book and Movie Comparisons List. This is a detailed page about the various changes made between media related to the Hannah Swensen Mystery ''series. General *The Books are officially titled "''Hannah Swensen Mystery: (name of food) Murder", While the Hallmark movies title the series "Murder, She Baked: (title)". *Hannah is described as being red-headed and on the chubby side with a disdain for exercise. However her actress is a blonde who is physically fit and shown excersising. *Tracey and Michelle do not exist in the movies. There also are secondary characters who were removed from the movies. *In the books Moishe hates Delores and is a main character who often causes Hannah trouble, but in the movies he is a background character who is said to like her. His appearance is also different. *Mike has red hair and a mustache in the books, but in the movies he is a brunette with no mustache. *Hannah owns a computer and various technologies she didn't want to use in the books until she was forced into taking a cellphone and computer around books 8-9 of the series. *The movies are not filmed in order of the books so some events are altered. *Several characters names were changed and had various personality changes. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder Names Scene *After finding Ron's body Hannah was brought to the police station, and after leaving she cries. In the book Hannah was interrogated at her shop and was not reduced to tears. *In the movie after finding Max's body with Andrea, Hannah worried over how the town would see her. A stark contrast to her behavior in the book, where the thought never crossed her mind and she focused on calming Andrea down with chocolate cookies. *Hannah's interactions with Mike are partially altered, and she appears more sympathetic towards him in the movie than in the book. Other Strawberry Shortcake Murder Names *The movie is titled "Just Desserts". *Boyd Watson is renamed Leonard Bishop. *Danielle Watson is renamed Michelle Bishop. *Craig Kimball is Mason's son, but in the movie he is renamed Josh and he isn't his son, another boy is. Scenes *Hannah suffers an injury after she falls down the stairs looking for Moishe. In the book she found him in the kitchen and she wasn't hurt. *As Tracey isn't in the movies, her scenes with the news staff were removed. *The bake-off portion is heavily altered, with there being 12 semi-finalists, but only 3 in the movie. It also got a lot more attention than in the movie. *The bake-off was held after Hannah made her dessert in the book, but in the movie it didn't star for a few days later, after they attended a basketball game. *There is a scene in the movie where Leonard and Michelle get into a dispute before the contest, but in the book Danielle was at home due to illness. *After the contest Hannah chastised Boyd for being too abrasive with his remarks, which didn't happen in the book. *Boyd was killed by a blunt object in his garage, while in the movie he was suffocated outside of the school. *Hannah is suspicious of Michelle for some time, but in the book she was convinced Danielle couldn't have killed her husband from the start. *Boyd was abusive towards Danielle in the book, but in the movie she suspected he was cheating on her and it's not implied he hurts her. *The scene of Hannah and her mom chatting on the phone is altered to them hanging out at Hannah's place discussing Mason and the dresses her mom planned to get from Claire's. *Hannah's mom comes to the Cookie Shop to talk to her but in the movie, she is approached by the staff of the cook-off to discuss the alterations they were forced to make. *In the book Hannah pays Danielle a visit in the hospital, where they sent her after Boyd was killed. Then she goes to the bar with Andrea to chat about the evidence while having food, then they pay Norman a visit and Hannah invites him back to her place to finish the discussion. They also get more names of people to interview. *As Gil Surma isn't in the movie, it was Norman who took over the basketball team. *In the book there is a scene when Hannah congratulates the winner of the round in the bake-off and reveal Edna took over for the coach in the judges panel. *Hannah goes to Rudy, then Mason to request watching the recording tapes, while in the movie she gave the cookies she made to some other guys and asked them for the tapes. *In the books Hannah mainly watched the tapes with Andrea, then at one part Mike, and on her own. But in the movie she only watched them with Mike. *Scenes featuring P.K. were altered since he was removed from the movie version. *Hannah's important clue in the book was a pair of gold stylized cuff links, but not in the movie. *Hannah visits Mr. Rutledge's home and she finds suspicious, sticky pills. She notes how they don't match the other pills they have and she calls Mike to inform him of this. He then sends someone to pick them up. She also steals one of the pills. In the book when she discovered steroids were being used from Delores and she refused to tell Mike anything. *Hannah and Norman go dumpster diving in the book and theorize the drugs were being cooked into the food. But in the book Mason was directly giving them to his son. *In the book Hannah offers to help Craig study and she tries to get information from him, but he refuses to speak about it. This event was left out of the movie. *Mason calls Hannah at home to ask that she comes in early to go over some changes they made to the program. After arriving she stops by one of the stations trucks and finds a picture, where she realizes he is wearing the cuff links. In the movie, she seems to reach the conclusion after viewing the school's saved basketball items. *In the movie Mason confronts Hannah in front of everyone seeing her on her phone and she shifts focus from the contest to him after Mike informs her he is on his way. Mason runs off and she chases after him, demanding she leave him alone while running around the school and shooting at her. In the book Mason purposely lured her there with the intention to kill her, then he grabs Hannah and forces her into the baking set intending on making her death look like an accident. *In the book Hannah bides her time by dropping her items and conversing with Mason, while in the movie she tries to talk Mason down by saying how proud his son was of him. *In the movie, Mason killed the coach for blackmailing him, saying he wouldn't tell anyone of the drugs as long as he paid him off. In the book, the coach planned on telling regardless after Mason's son approached him to ask for help getting him away from the steroids. *In the movie Mason was about to commit suicide when Mike stops him and as he's being arrested his son shows up to ask what happened. In the book he felt no remorse for killing the coach or empathy for forcing Craig to take drugs, and Craig doesn't show up once Mike arrests him. *The ending is changed, with Hannah visiting Danielle and then showing up to the party, where she teases Mike and Norman by claiming "a guy was waiting for her in bed", really talking about Moishe. In the movie she and Mike go out on a date after kissing each other and bring up their "engagement party" everyone is waiting for them to show up to. Added Scenes *Norman and Coach Bishop are outside and Norman runs into the school to return and find him dead in his car. In the book he was killed in his garage and Danielle found him. *Hannah and Mike go out on a date. *Mike is shown asking for Boyd's body to be re-examined after getting results and with Bill they overlook the video evidence they had been given. *Hannah sneaks into the coaches office to investigate. *Mike and Bill begin to think one of the kids on the basketball team killed the coach. *While hanging out at Hannah's, she and Andrea discuss the fight Michelle and Leonard had the night of his murder. *They bring Josh into the sheriff station for questioning, where his mom angrily chews out Mike for it and points out how demanding the coach was. *Hannah visits Michelle at her home and she becomes defensive when Mike arrives as well. She then reveals he wasn't having an affair like she thought, but he was working, something she got tired of him always doing. She then asks if she being arrested and Mike says they need her statement, then he asks Hannah for her opinions and they wonder if the coach was killed over the contest. *A scene involving the autopsy worker informing Mike of updates was added. *After watching the tapes Hannah and Mike nearly get into a car accident after Mike realizes someone tampered with her brakes. *Josh visits Hannah with Norman at the Cookie Shop, then he places an order with her. *At one point Hannah studies the ingredients with the drugs she found and brings up Twitter when she isn't able to understand what Norman is telling her. *Andrea and Hannah discuss her lack of romance with Mike and she pays him a visit at the station. She then reveals to him her theories and asks him to come with her to interview a chef she suspects. He turns her down and she takes off to interview the chef, only to discover Mike "on a date" with another woman, who later turns out to be the sister of his deceased wife. *After Hannah interviews the chef to discuss a suspicious man involved in the contest, the man is brought in for questioning by Mike and he accused him of trying to kill Hannah due to killing the coach. The man claims innocence -although he did resort to bribery- and after leaving the room Mike doesn't believe he is involved. *Hannah confronts Michelle and she reveals having gone into his office before he was killed to find his phone in search of something. She then called the number she found and discovered he was cheating on her like she thought, but she hid his phone not wanting anyone to discover it. More searching causes Hannah to discover a set of suspicious texts and she shows Mike. *Mike and Bill were shown to figure out what happened between Mason and the coach and Mike takes off to track him down. Other *The book is #2 in the series, while the movie is #5. *P.K., Gil Surma, Edna, and Lucy aren't characters in the movie. *Andrea already had her baby, but in the book she was still pregnant. *The movie heavily focused on Mike keeping Hannah at arms length and their relationship growing stronger. As a result, Norman was reduced to smaller parts and didn't help Hannah as much as in the book. *In the book Danielle is shown to be a withdrawn and quiet type who genuinely loved Boyd, but in the movies she is shown to be brisk and accused him of overworking and cheating on her. *Mike is shown to be more dependant on Hannah's assistance and willing to talk to her than he initially was in the book. *Bill is already granted the sheriff position, but in the book Sheriff Grant was still alive. Plum Pudding Murder Peach Cobbler Murder Names *Shawna Lee is renamed Melanie *Winthrop was renamed Douglas. **His real name Bobby Joe was changed to Robert. Scenes *Hannah was hesitant to step foot into the Magnolia Blossom Bakery and had someone else pick up the cobbler. In the movie she got it with Andrea, her mom, Norman, and the Mayor. *The book focused a lot more on the Magnolia Blossom Bakery and how it was running business than in the movie. *Business was getting so bad that Hannah worried she would need to take out a loan, but in the movie she had normal business. *Norman gave Hannah a valentine present in the book but not in the movie. *Hannah confronts Mike regarding his past relationship with Shawna Lee after the wedding. In the movie it was before. *The peach cobbler taste-test wasn't done anonymously in the book like it was in the movie. *Hannah had to fill in for the limo driver due to something coming up at the last-second, but this didn't happen in the movie. *The message on Shawna Lee's phone differs between book and movie. *In the book Hannah had to call for the police after discovering the body and both Mike and Norman show up, then she later tells off Mike after he reveals he was coming to visit her. But in the movie Mike was shown entering when he found her observing the body and she leaves the bakery as Norman approaches wondering what happened. *Hannah and Mike's discussion is different between the book and movie. *Hannah is approached by Andrea and her mother in the movie the same night after finding the body, when Bill gets called while they are at the wedding hall. But in the book she doesn't speak to them about it until the following day. *They determine the murder happened between five and seven pm, but in the movie they reason it was after nine. *At one point in the book it's theorized that the Mayor could have been a suspect but Hannah quickly shoots down the idea. Something that never occurs in the movie. *In the book Vanessa offers to let Hannah take anything in the bakery after paying her a visit, but in the movie she approaches her to request buying the mixer. *Hannah is shown expressing concern over her mothers relationship with Winthrop in the book but barely pays it attention in the movie until late in the movie. *Hannah investigates Vanessa's husband a bit differently in the movie and brings Norman with her after searching online, while in the book she had Andrea help her after Norman found some papers with information. The investigation also went differently between the book and movie. *Gloria is taken in by the cops for investigation and Hannah follows them with her mom to try to talk to her, but in the book Hannah went to the cosmetics building and spoke to her directly. *Hannah helps Vanessa drop off various items into the trash behind the Magnolia Blossom Bakery and investigates to discover a picture of Douglas, leading them to realize he is connected to the girls. But in the book Hannah finds this out after Delores invites her over to reveal she thinks he cheated on her with one of them. *Hannah confronts her mom with what she found the next day and she angrily storms off, only for the girls to distract her with cookies back in the shop and Hannah to rush to Douglas' place. In the book Delores asks them to investigate his home and gives them the keys he had made for her, and Hannah has Andrea drive around the block to keep an eye out for him. *In the book Hannah is confronted by Winthrop alone and he reveals his plan to kill Vanessa but he accidentally killed Shawna instead, and how he never loved her mom. After the police take him into custody Vanessa was later caught. But in the movie, Douglas was revealed to be a good person who wanted to get away from Vanessa and wanted to be with Delores, but she was blackmailing him and refused to leave him alone. He tries to escape after the cops show up but is caught after Delores attacks him, but he claims that he genuinely loved her as they take him away. *Hannah talks to Mike at the police station in the book and tells Hannah and her mom that they need to keep quiet about what happened. But in the movie, she talks to him as he leads her away from the apartment and asks her out. *In the book Hannah receives a marriage proposal from both Mike and Norman during their party, but in the movie Hannah has the party with her mom and Andrea. Added Scenes *At the wedding party Andrea ends up revealing the truth behind the Magnolia Blossom, sending Hannah to comfort Melanie after she runs out in embaressement. She asks that Hannah teach her some real baking skills and promises to close the bakery down by Easter. *It is revealed in the movie that Melanie knew Mike through his deceased wife, and that they were friends prior to them being married. *Mike informs Hannah that she is a suspect in the movie the day after she finds the corpse. *Hannah confides in Delores about being a suspect after Mike interviews her, then she gets together with everyone to discuss possible motives during a dinner party. *As both she and Shawna Lee got flowers Hannah decides to interview the business to get information. *Hannah does a search on Melanie using her computer and her home is investigated by the cops. She is also shown getting a lot of attention from everyone who thinks she might be a suspect, and at one point Lisa offers her money to run away should it come down to it. *Mike finds a gun in Hannah's possession and suggests she call a lawyer, so they are forced to close the Cookie Jar. Douglas offers to find her an attorney for help. *Vanessa talks more about Melanie's relationship with Mike in the movie, while in the book they discussed that she drank too much while hanging out with Mike to vent over Shawna's death. Other *Sheriff Grant is still alive, but he was killed two books prior to this one. *Shawna's movie appearance differs from the book, and she lacks her southern belle personality. She also interacts with Hannah a lot more and seemed to like her, while her views on Hannah weren't explored in the book. **Her sisters appearance is also altered in the movie, and they aren't shown to get along well in comparison to the book. *In the book there is a subplot featuring Moishe and a mouse that was removed from the movie. *Norman has an arm injury in the movie for unknown reasons. Category:Other Category:Lists